ROUGH STOCK

In my project Rough Stock, I continue my exploration of American men (and older adolescents) displaying physical prowess, strength and courage -- personality traits which our culture values as implicitly male. I have worked in several different subcultures (boxing, wrestling and hunting); Rough Stock is set in the world of motor sports: vintage cars, demo derby, motorcycles and snowmobiles. I am interested in the unusual, super-human quality that racecar drivers and daredevils possess. Man and machine become one in an alliance that gives my subject an odd quality which I seek out for in my work. While each image can be seen as its own individual environmental portrait, as a group they portray a modern-day rodeo where the car has replaced the horse and bull and the drivers are the new cowboy.